Webb Pond camp burns to the ground

Eastbrook firefighter Blake Carney takes a quick break while Jeff Cote, also with the Eastbrook Fire Department, sprays down hot spots Thursday evening at the scene of a camp fire on Webb Pond in Waltham. Firefighters at the scene said no one seems to have been at the camp when the fire started. The blaze was reported by people on the other side of the pond who heard a loud "boom" around 5 p.m., which firefighters think was a propane tank exploding in the flames.

Bill Trotter

Eastbrook firefighters Blake Carney (left) and Jeff Cote douse smoldering rubble at a camp fire in Waltham on Thursday evening. Firefighters say the structure had collapsed from fire damage before they arrived at the scene at around 5:30 p.m.

WALTHAM, Maine — Fire destroyed a camp on the western side of Webb Pond on Thursday evening.

Ranger Rick Henion of Maine Forest Service said the fire was reported around 5 p.m. by residents on the east side of Webb Pond in Eastbrook. Witnesses said they heard a loud “boom,” and when they looked west across the lake, they could see a waterfront camp engulfed in flames. By the time firefighters arrived, the camp had entirely collapsed into a pile of burning rubble, firefighters said. The camp is located several miles down a dirt road off Route 179.

Henion said no one appears to have been at the camp at the time of the fire. Firefighters said they were not sure who the camp owner is. Henion said the “boom” likely was a propane tank that exploded after the fire started.

Henion said fighting fires in such remote locations can be problematic.

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“Usually, by the time you get here, there’s nothing but surrounding camps to save,” the ranger said.